Warning...Flying Stuffed Animals

Every morning I have the pleasure of helping Jessica get ready for school. In the beginning of the year, I had to guess whether or not to put on full riot gear in fear of being pummeled by stuffed animals or I could walk into the room without concern. I have since learned that her attitude depends on what activities are planned for the day. On the days she has Art and P.E. she is bouncing around with a smile on her face. On the days she has a math test she is stomping around citing the many reasons why school is “dumb”; “it’s boring, I can’t memorize times tables or I don’t feel like dealing with “so and so” today she is mean.” The whirlwind usually ends with, “I would just like to skip the third grade.”

I know exactly how she feels. I was never fond of math either. Personally, I still like Art and P.E. well you know what I mean anything creative is fun to learn. Taking “tests” however is another matter altogether.

A few years ago I went through a very tough personal situation. Trust me when I say that I wanted to throw a great number of stuffed animals at the wall, it would have hurt a lot less than hitting my head against it. I was talking with a friend about my situation when he told me something that I will never forget. He said “God is not testing you so you will fail, He is testing you so you will succeed.” This truly changed my perspective. Could this situation have been planned all along so that I would learn something? It’s more likely that I made a few bad decisions and as is God’s character, He would use my bad situation for good.

The test was how would I handle it? Would I continue to hit my head against the wall, blame myself or others (a destructive path which did not solve the problem and made me feel like a shrew), ignore it and hope it magically went away or walk the other direction toward a lasting solution.

Before I could answer that question there was one thing to resolve. This was not the first time I had been in this situation. Perhaps my lack of learning the lesson the first time had used up all my “grace tokens”. Did I hit my limit of patience for this particular subject? Would I face an “I told you so” or “Are we really here again Bonnie?” This is what I learned. His heart is not that of condemnation, but grace to restore.

We have things to learn, tests to go through. No matter what we are facing He has a solution. Not necessarily one without consequences, but because of His incredible compassion toward those He loves, you will not walk them out alone. He wants you to not only pass the test, He wants you to bounce out of bed every morning knowing that with His help you are going to ace it.

P.S. No actual stuffed animals were harmed during the time of this story.